People from all over the US travel to the Golden Gate bridge to jump. Getty Images.

For decades, the mortality rate across the US was in decline. That’s why the results of a 2015 report were so shocking. For the first time in generations, middle-aged white people saw their death rate increase. Husband and wife economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton discovered this disturbing trend, which began back in 1999. The researchers labeled these “deaths of despair,” resulting from suicide, drug or alcohol abuse.